AFSCME union members picket Knox Co. board meeting

More than 30 AFSCME union members picketed the County Board meeting Wednesday night to protest what they view as unfair offers by the county.

Matt Hutton

Union members, upset about “an impasse” in negotiations with the county, took their message to the public Wednesday night.

About 30 AFSCME union members from the nursing home and sheriff’s department were outside the Knox County Courthouse before the Knox County Board meeting with signs, chanting phrases such as “Knox County Board has got to go,” and “What do we want? Three percent. When do we want it? Now.”

The county is involved in negotiations with the union on behalf of employees of the Knox County Nursing Home and Knox County Sheriff’s Department. American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees Council 31 Staff Representative Randy Lynch said the county has offered a raise of what he called a “measly” 2.5 percent and has not backed off that figure. The union is requesting a 3 percent raise.

“We settled for 2.5 percent last year and we fell below the standard of living and the inflation rate,” Lynch said. “(The employees) struggle every day and live paycheck to paycheck.”

The impasse affects about 130 county employees. The nursing home employees are in the middle of a three-year contract and are negotiating only wages for the next year. The county and union are working on a new contract for the sheriff’s officers — the current contract expires Nov. 30.

County Board Chairman Allen Pickrel said he has been involved in the negotiations on the new sheriff’s contract. He disputed Lynch’s statement that the union had asked for 3 percent, saying Lynch had asked for a 6 percent pay increase.

Pickrel said the county budget, which was approved at the meeting, calls for 2.5 percent raises for all employees across the board. He added the county and union have sat down for negotiations only twice.

“I think he’s getting a little radical at this point,” Pickrel said.

Lynch began to speak about the dispute at the board meeting and started to list a litany of ways he said the county has wasted money. Pickrel cut him off saying he was out of order.

Lynch laid out his complaints before the meeting, and they pertained to at least $100,000 spent by the state’s attorney’s office on private investigators and what will be much more than $20,000 on special audits for the sheriff’s and state’s attorney’s offices.

“We’re just tired of it,” he said. “We’ve watched the Knox County Board spend and squander money and they don’t want to take care of nurses and corrections officers and court security.”

Lynch said the difference between what the union was asking for and what the county was offering the nursing home employees was $18,000.

“They waste that on a daily basis,” he said, adding he did not have those figures for the sheriff’s department.

Lynch said there is no danger of a strike, but the union will “keep pressure on the board.”